


the closing of the year

by emmerrr



Series: winter wonderland [7]
Category: Dreamer Trilogy - Maggie Stiefvater, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Holiday Shenanigans, M/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28290528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: “I don’t really think swapping Secret Santa recipients is in the spirit of the season, Hennessy,” Ronan said with a grin.
Relationships: Jordan/Declan Lynch, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Series: winter wonderland [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1217862
Comments: 26
Kudos: 159





	the closing of the year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [squash1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/squash1/gifts).



It had been Matthew who had suggested they all do Secret Santa following Thanksgiving dinner at Declan’s townhouse.

“We’ll put everyone’s names in a hat now, pick one out, then at Christmas when we’re all at the Barns we can give them all out,” he said. “It’ll be nice.”

“Oh, so I’m hosting Christmas now, am I?” Ronan asked.

“I hosted Thanksgiving, so you get to host Christmas,” Declan said.

Ronan didn’t exactly mind, but he scowled anyway. “Why don’t we all pile into Adam’s dorm and _he_ can host Christmas.”

“You’re banned from campus,” Adam reminded him mildly, and Hennessy burst out laughing.

Ronan glared at her. “Laugh it up, I’m volunteering you for hosting duties next year.”

Rules were put in place to make it fair; a $15 price limit, no swapping, and Ronan and Hennessy weren’t allowed to give anything that had been dreamt.

Declan found some paper, and Jordan ripped six strips off of it and wrote a name on each before folding them all very carefully so that no part of the name enclosed was visible. She dropped them into a bowl and Matthew gave it a good shake so they’d all been sufficiently shuffled around.

One by one, they all took out a name, and when they all had one, they each took a step back as they unfolded the paper to see who their recipient would be. Everyone remained impassive, giving nothing away as they put the paper into their pockets.

Ronan breathed an internal sigh of relief at having picked Matthew; Matthew was notoriously easy to please.

The next day, Ronan and Adam both left, driving to different locations. It was the last time they’d see each other until Adam’s semester was over, and even though it wasn’t that much longer, at this point in time Christmas felt incredibly far away.

It couldn’t come quickly enough.

* * *

A week before everyone was due to descend on the Barns for the holidays, Ronan got a call from Hennessy. Seeing as she was more of a texter, or just a show up out of the blue kind of person, Ronan was intrigued enough to answer.

She didn’t even wait for him to say anything. “You have to swap with me for Secret Santa.”

“Hello to you, too,” Ronan replied.

“Hello. You have to swap with me for Secret Santa.”

“No fucking chance.”

“Hear me out, you miserable bastard; I have Adam. You want Adam, right?”

 _Always,_ Ronan thought but did not say. “Me not picking Adam in Secret Santa is not, funnily enough, preventing me from getting him anything. And also this way I’m not confined by any of the dumb fucking rules.”

There was a sigh followed by a long pause as Hennessy presumably tried to think of anything at all that might get Ronan to change his mind. “Pleeeeeease? Please swap with me. I’ll never ask you for anything ever again.” Oh good, she’d resorted to begging.

“I don’t really think swapping Secret Santa recipients is in the spirit of the season, Hennessy,” Ronan said with a grin.

“You are the biggest asshole I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

“I _do_ try.”

“At least help me out, then. What does Adam like that costs up to $15?”

Ronan momentarily forgot every single thing that existed which you could purchase from a store. “You probably don’t need to overthink this.”

“Oh, trust me, I have _no_ intentions of overthinking this,” Hennessy said, exactly as she was doing just that. “Fuck you. I’ll get him a fridge magnet.”

Ronan was ninety-nine percent sure she was kidding. “Merry Christmas, Hennessy,” he said cheerfully.

“Yeah, yeah. See you next week, you useless bag of shit.”

* * *

A couple of days later, Ronan headed into Henrietta. He needed to do a big food shop for the incoming masses (five extra people felt like a whole lot when you lived alone most of the time), and he still needed to find something for Matthew.

Before doing any of that, he paid a visit to 300 Fox Way, because sometimes he liked to remind himself that not everyone he cared about lived really far away. And also because they probably missed Blue as much as he did, if not more.

Calla was doing her weird upside-down spinning aerobics thing when he arrived, walking in after a cursory knock.

She grinned when she saw him. “Pay up, Orla!” she yelled. “Told you the snake would come round.”

“You said it would be in the afternoon,” Orla shouted back.

“It _is_ the afternoon!”

“It’s 11:57!”

“Semantics!” Calla called irritably, but Orla didn’t reply.

Ronan smiled thinly. “Guess you won’t be getting your money.”

Calla rotated down and landed daintier than Ronan would have thought possible. “Apparently not. What are you doing here?”

Ronan shrugged. “Thought I’d visit. Season of goodwill and all that.”

Calla peered at him shrewdly, then took in his empty hands. “Left our gifts in the car, did you?”

“Well where’s _my_ gift? Seeing as you knew I was coming.”

Calla waved a hand dismissively. “You’re rich. You’re a dreamer. You don’t need anything from us.”

They were interrupted by Maura wandering through, holding a steaming mug of...well, Ronan wasn’t too sure.

“Hello, Ronan,” she said. “Drink this.”

Ronan eyed it suspiciously. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, it’s polite,” Maura said easily, passing it to him. “Sit down.”

Ronan sat. He sniffed his tea, pulled a face, took a tentative sip, pulled an even bigger face, then put it down. “That is disgusting.”

“It’s supposed to help with heartburn.”

“I haven’t _got_ heartburn.”

“Oh, excellent, it works.”

“...Okay, great. Well, this has been weird as ever. I have to go food shopping. And I need to get Matthew a Secret Santa gift.”

“Get him a gift certificate for a tarot reading,” Calla said, hand out for money like she was already expecting him to agree.

“No.”

“Oooh, I could put together a nice box of different teas for him?” Maura suggested.

“Matthew only drinks horrendously sweet Starbucks concoctions, so your teas would be lost on him. Also, do you have any ideas for something I can get him that _doesn’t_ come from here?”

“Of course not,” Calla shook her head. “You really should be supporting your local small businesses, Ronan.”

Ronan rolled his eyes, but then had a thought. “Actually, do you have any teas that are good for settling your stomach?”

“I think so,” Maura said, and Ronan trailed her to the kitchen. She pulled a tin down from a cupboard and riffled through it. She soon found a small pouch of teabags and held them up. “I recommend adding a bit of honey to these ones, they’re a bit pungent.”

If they were bad enough that even Maura thought to give a warning, they really _must_ have smelled bad. Ronan grinned. “Perfect. I’ll put them in Declan’s stocking.” He pulled out his wallet. “How much?”

“Fifty dollars!” Calla yelled.

Maura smiled and shook her head. “More like five.”

Ronan gave her ten — being supportive of a small local business — and decided he should get going.

Maura walked him to the door. “Enjoy having everyone home. And don’t forget, you’re always welcome.”

“Thanks,” he said, then poked his head into the room where Calla was once again upside down. “Happy Holidays, Calla.”

“Likewise,” she said grudgingly, and Ronan laughed.

He’d made it halfway down the driveway when Maura called after him. “Remind Adam to pay us a visit while he’s here? We miss him.”

They weren’t the only ones. “I’ll see if I can spare him.”

Maura smiled. “I’m sure you will.”

* * *

Ronan managed to get what he imagined were the basics for a Christmas dinner, as well as a bunch of snacks and treats, so that if something went monumentally wrong then at least they wouldn’t all starve. He felt sure that he must have forgotten something, but he still had time to go again before everyone arrived; he really didn’t want to _have_ to, but the option was there all the same.

Matthew’s gift had been more difficult than Ronan had anticipated. Calla’s comment about supporting local businesses meant he really wanted to avoid going into any chain stores, instead walking up and down some of the festive market stalls that had set up for the season, as well as some of the locally-owned shops that sold various knick-knacks and assorted kitsch crap.

The good thing was that Matthew was a very big fan of kitsch, and for a grand total of $15.75 Ronan managed to find a vaguely possessed looking tree ornament of an alligator wearing a sombrero, an after dinner movie trivia game, and a whoopee cushion.

Once home, he wrapped the gifts before he forgot about them, then put them upstairs in his room until they were needed. The stockings were already hung above the fireplace, so Ronan grabbed the tea he’d bought from Maura and dropped it into Declan’s. He unpacked all of the shopping, put the turkey in the freezer, then spent the rest of the afternoon in the long barn outside, dreaming.

He called Adam late, but he knew he’d be up.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. How goes the studying?”

“As well as can be expected.”

“That bad, huh?”

“It’s just...a lot. And I’m tired and it’s so close to the end of the semester that I’m fast losing motivation, which I can’t do because I have a test the day before break starts. And also I’ve been trying to avoid Christmas songs until I’m driving home to you which is _really_ difficult when Fletcher’s been on Mariah Carey’s _All I Want For Christmas Is You_ lockdown since like, mid-November. I swear, I don’t know how he gets anything done listening to that, it’s so distracting.”

Ronan smiled; he loved it when Adam went into full-rant mode. “What do _you_ listen to to study then?”

“My sociology notes,” Adam said flatly. “What _else_ would I listen to?”

“You are _so_ consistent,” Ronan said, endlessly fond. “Only five days now, anyway.”

“Counting down, Lynch?” Adam was clearly smiling; Ronan could picture the look on his face as he said it.

“So I miss you. Fuck you. Harvard sucks.”

“Harvard _does_ suck. Well, it doesn’t, but it does. I’m tired.” Adam sighed. “Did I say that already? And I miss you too, by the way.”

“You did say that already, and also I should fucking hope so.”

“So anyway,” Adam’s tone turned innocent and hopeful, “seeing as you miss me and you love me so much, do you feel like doing me a favour?”

There was very little Ronan would deny Adam, but he knew better than to blankly agree to anything. “Do you wanna be a little more specific?”

“Secret Santa.”

Of course. “Ah.”

“Swap with me?”

“No.”

“At least _think_ about it.” The scowl in Adam’s voice was audible.

“Hmm. Still no.”

“But I have Hennessy, and you guys are like, BFFs, so really _I’m_ the one doing _you_ a favour.”

Ronan barely restrained a laugh; Christmas was going to be fantastic.

“Not sure your logic is completely sound there, Parrish.”

“Ronan, I have no idea what to get her, and I have no _time_ — _”_

“It’s not a big deal, just get something from a gas station on your way home, Hennessy is not that picky, I swear. And besides, I’ve already bought mine so I can’t swap now anyway, even if it _wasn’t_ against the rules, which it is.”

“Since when do you give a shit about rules,” Adam said grumpily.

“Since my adorable, sweet little brother suggested we all do this nice fun thing for the holidays.”

Adam groaned. “Ugh, _fine,_ I’ll find something. Now go away, I’m very busy, I love you.”

“Get some sleep,” Ronan grinned down the phone. “Love you too.”

* * *

The last few days predictably dragged as Ronan tried and failed not to count them. There was plenty to occupy himself with; living on land such as he did, there was constant upkeep to be getting on with, not to mention all the other ways Ronan happily filled his time. But somehow, with so little time to go until people would arrive, every task Ronan undertook only seemed to spend an hour or two, the days stretching excruciatingly long.

Finally, day broke on the 23rd of December.

Ronan was up early, unable to get back to sleep, and he knew it would be hours before anyone got here. Adam had a long way to drive, and Ronan was pretty sure Declan had said the rest of them would set off from D.C. in the afternoon.

Ronan got a text from Adam just after seven that said he was just leaving, which gave Ronan approximately eight hours to try and fill until he could give his boyfriend a fucking hug.

He meandered slowly through the house, taking his sweet time making coffee and eating breakfast. He washed all of the dishes that had accumulated in the kitchen over the last few days, then did the good host duties of making sure there were clean sheets and fresh towels on all of the beds. Hennessy could sleep in Declan’s room, and he and Jordan would have to take the master.

Once that was done, Ronan did a cursory tidy-up and vacuum in the living room, folding up all of the throw blankets and putting them on the back of the sofas in easy reach. He made sure the tree lights were on, as well as the ones he’d managed to drape up outside along the porch; he wanted it to look pretty and twinkling when people got here. Then he took a long shower, got dressed, and went back downstairs.

He’d avoided checking the time because he didn’t want the crushing disappointment of finding out that somehow only ten minutes had passed, and he was operating under the logic that a watched pot never boiled. So instead, he pulled every Christmas movie he could find off the shelf and stacked them all next to the TV, put on a record that had decently good festive tunes, then got a fire going.

He must have nodded off, because the next thing he became aware of was the sound of a car or two approaching from the road. He leapt to his feet and hurried through the house and outside, just in time to see Adam’s shitbox drive up, closely followed by Declan’s Volvo.

They’d barely parked before Matthew was out of the car and barrelling into Ronan with the force of a freight train.

“Ronan! Look at who _we_ bumped into,” he said happily, then stepped back and held his arm out towards Adam, like he was presenting him.

Adam was already out of his car by now and walked straight into Ronan’s arms, mumbling “Hi” against his neck.

“Hi,” Ronan replied, overwhelmed at everyone here at the same time, wishing he had a moment alone with Adam. He’d been so excited for everyone to finally get here, and now he felt like the party had started without him. “So you drove here in a convoy.”

“Two cars hardly constitutes a convoy, Ronan. And we were only together for the last twenty minutes,” Adam said, pulling out of the hug but staying in Ronan’s orbit.

“Matthew made me beep the horn at you, by the way,” Declan said, walking past with a big weekend bag over his shoulder. It seemed important to him that Adam knew said beeping had not been his idea.

Ronan shook his head at his brother. “Inappropriate use of the car horn, Declan? Unbelievable.”

“Missed you too, you little twerp.”

Ronan smiled bitingly as Declan disappeared into the house, closely followed by Jordan who stopped briefly to give Ronan and Adam hugs.

Hennessy brought up the rear. “That took _forever,_ your brother drives like my nan,” she said in lieu of a greeting. She looked so grumpy and Ronan was struck all at once with how much he’d missed her.

They fell into step beside her as they walked into the house, Ronan’s arm around Adam’s shoulder, but he nudged Hennessy in the side jovially with his free hand.

“Cheer up, you’re here now.”

“Joy,” she said, rolling her eyes, but Ronan wasn’t fooled. “You do have booze here, right?”

“Fully stocked.”

“Awesome,” she said, then jogged ahead. “Jordan! Let’s make mulled wine.”

“Mulled wine, huh?” Adam said. “That sounds nice.”

“Hey, as long as _I_ don’t have to make it.” Ronan took Adam’s bag and pulled it over his own shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get you unpacked.”

* * *

Muffled sounds filtered down the hall from the kitchen and into the living room; terrible Christmas songs on the radio, laughter and conversation, occasional exasperated tones that Ronan could tell came from Declan. It was nice to have people in the house again.

Ronan and Adam lay sprawled on the sofa, a fast asleep Adam tucked messily into Ronan’s side. His arm was starting to go a little numb from where Adam was leaning on it, but that was okay; Ronan would happily take it. The mulled wine made by Jordan and Hennessy had been delicious and warming, and was probably partially responsible for the speed at which Adam had utterly conked out.

 _Back to the Future_ was playing on the TV, and Ronan was half paying attention to it. The subtitles were on for Adam already, and so he’d just turned the sound down a bit when Adam had fallen asleep. At present, there was nowhere else Ronan would rather be.

As Marty McFly started to play Johnny B. Goode, Jordan poked her head around the door.

“Well _this_ is adorable,” she said, gesturing generally at Ronan and Adam. “You busy?”

“How could you tell?”

She grinned. “Matthew’s found a gingerbread cookie recipe online and we’re going to give it a go. I thought I’d see if you guys wanted to join, but you seem a little preoccupied.”

Ronan glanced down at Adam, whose head was pillowed on his chest. Adam’s mouth was parted slightly, his breathing deep and even. The sleep of the perpetually exhausted. He probably wouldn’t want Ronan to let him nap for too long, but Ronan couldn’t bring himself to wake Adam up just yet.

“Nah, I think we’re good here for a bit,” he told Jordan, and she nodded and turned to leave.

“Hey, Jordan?” She turned back. “Save us a couple to decorate?”

She smiled. “Sure.”

The gingerbread cookies ended up a little bit burnt, and no one had been patient enough to wait until they’d fully cooled before decorating, so the icing was a bit melty and smeared all over the place. This meant that Adam and Ronan’s ended up looking the best by default, because they hadn’t shown up until the cookes were completely cool.

It was dark by then, and everyone was getting hungry. Ronan had bought some pizza bases and various toppings so that people could just do whatever they wanted, and once they were ready, everyone descended on the living room for a pizza and movie night.

They made it through three and a half movies before, Adam, Declan, and Matthew were all falling asleep, so they collectively called it a night and went to bed.

* * *

It was rare for Adam to wake up before Ronan, but on Christmas Eve, Ronan groggily blinked awake to muffled swearing and the crinkling of paper. He threw an arm out but Adam wasn’t in bed, and he raised his head slowly.

Adam was sitting on the bedroom floor, his back to Ronan, a roll of wrapping paper and a pair of scissors beside him.

“What’re you doing?” Ronan asked, voice still thick with sleep.

“I’m trying to wrap this Secret Santa thing,” Adam replied without turning around.

“What did you get in the end?”

At this Adam did peer over his shoulder. “Isn’t it against your precious rules to ask about that until they’ve all been opened?”

Ronan smiled at Adam, too happy to have him home to be a shit, not to mention that it felt far too early. “True enough. Come back to bed, it’s cold.”

“In a minute.”

During the minute he spent finishing wrapping the present, Ronan was close to falling asleep again, but he was aware enough to feel the dip in the bed when Adam climbed back in. He snuggled up close, bundling Adam into his arms.

“I’m quite looking forward to the next couple of days,” Adam said quietly. When Ronan hummed in response, he continued, “It’s nice to have people around. And the tree looks nice, and the lights. It’s cozy. You did good.” He kissed Ronan on the cheek and then the corner of his mouth; Ronan smiled into it. “It feels like what Christmas is _supposed_ to feel like, y’know? Family and friends, movies and games. Food. Turkey and all that good stuff.”

Ronan’s eyes snapped open. All at once he was very, very awake. “Oh fuck,” he said. “Oh, _fuck!”_

“Ronan, what?” Adam said, alarmed, but Ronan was already scrambling out of bed and out of the room.

He flew downstairs and out into the utility room where there was a large chest freezer, Adam hot on his heels. He opened it and pulled out the turkey, turning around with it.

“Do you think it’ll defrost in time?”

Adam had stopped short when he’d seen what Ronan was doing, and now seemed to be suppressing a smile. “For _tomorrow?_ I highly doubt it.”

There was a large sink in the utility and Ronan put the extremely frozen turkey inside. “Why not?”

Adam looked unsure. “I dunno, I’m pretty sure frozen turkeys can take like a good couple of days to defrost.”

Ronan had a sneaking suspicion Adam was right, but he really didn’t want to tell Declan he’d forgotten to get it out of the freezer early enough, and he wasn’t really in the mood to feel guilty at Christmas. The turkey was out of the freezer, and so it would defrost in time. It could be their Christmas miracle.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Ronan said, then slid his now freezing cold hands up Adam’s t-shirt because he was an absolute bastard.

“Get _off_ me, you’re _freezing,”_

Ronan laughed happily and wrapped his arms around Adam from behind, marching him forward back through to the kitchen. “Let’s find some breakfast.”

* * *

Christmas Eve started as somewhat of a free-for-all. Everyone got up at their own leisure and sorted out their breakfasts. At some point in the mid-morning, Declan and Jordan went off for a drive, and the rest of them held down the fort in the living room. Matthew put on the festive series of _Nailed It!_ while they all dug into chocolate and cookies. Hennessy kept tossing crumbs to Chainsaw, just to annoy Ronan.

“Stop teaching my bird bad manners.”

“Your bird was raised by _you,_ she’s already got bad manners.”

 _“Kreker,”_ said Chainsaw.

“I think I’d do really well if I went on _Nailed It!,”_ Matthew said, eyes still on the TV, oblivious to everything else going on around him.

Ronan picked up one of the gingerbread men he had decorated the day before, admiring his handiwork. “Not me. I’d have to go on _Sugar Rush_ instead.”

“You would be a disaster on _Sugar Rush,”_ Adam cut in.

“You don’t think I could bake cakes fast?”

“I’m sure you _could,_ I just doubt how edible they would be.”

Ronan grinned. “You’re cute when you’re being mean to me.”

“What the flying fuck is _Sugar Rush?”_ Hennessy asked.

“The baking competition where time is the most important ingredient,” Matthew recited dutifully.

Hennessy shrugged. “Whatever. _The Great British Bake Off_ is clearly the superior baking competition show.”

“Oh I’d _love_ to go on that show, everyone always seems so nice,” Matthew said. “I can’t bake though, d’you think that’d be a problem?”

“Matthew, you’d be the enthusiastic kid who everyone loves but has a disaster on all three rounds and gets booted off first,” Hennessy told him.

He nodded solemnly. “I’ll take it.”

“Parrish would be the one who always has really ambitious plans for the showstopper round but it never quite looks like it’s supposed to,” Ronan said. “But then he’d fucking ace bread week and win star baker _and_ a Hollywood handshake.”

“I’ve never made bread, ever, in my life,” Adam said.

“Yeah, but it’s _science,”_ Ronan insisted. “You’d figure it out.”

Adam smiled. “I reckon that you’d be the contestant who somehow does amazing in the technical every week despite never knowing what the thing you’re making is supposed to look or taste like.”

“Winning accidentally is the greatest way to win.” Ronan pointed at Hennessy. “You would, one _hundred_ percent, be the person who just completely wings the whole thing. Like, no practice whatsoever.”

“Of course not, I’d have better things to do than _practice.”_ She laughed. “Jordan would be the super artsy, meticulous person who got accused of being ‘style over substance’ week after week but she’d still win the whole damn thing.”

“What about Declan?” asked Matthew.

Ronan thought about it. “He’s the one that no one can ever remember until all of a sudden he’s in the final.”

Adam hummed. “Good old dependable Declan.”

“Exactly,” Ronan said, because he was feeling charitable.

The plan was to exchange Secret Santa gifts at some point after dinner, and Ronan had put a festive box under the tree for people to surreptitiously put their gifts inside.

As for dinner itself, Ronan and Adam made a giant lasagna, because it was minimal effort for maximum impact, and pasta was always a good crowd pleaser.

Once everyone had finished and the plates had been cleared away, Ronan went and fetched the Secret Santa box and dished out presents, until everyone had something in front of them.

“Who goes first?” Adam asked. “Or does everyone go at once? And also, when do we say who they’re from, or does no one ever find out?”

“That’s a lot of questions, Harvard,” Hennessy said.

Ronan was getting impatient. “Fuck it, let’s just all open them at once.”

“Seconded!” Matthew proclaimed, and began ripping into his without further comment. Following his cue, everyone else did the same.

Ronan’s took him a minute because it was tightly wrapped and with more sellotape than was strictly necessary, but when he finally got into it, he found a deck of playing cards that were corvid themed, as well as a bright pink sequin covered notebook, _Dream Journal_ embossed on the front in large, swirly letters.

Ronan shook his head, hiding a grin. His thoughts immediately went to Adam or Hennessy, but he already knew that they had both pulled each other’s names. He lifted his head and caught Declan’s eye; his brother was clearly watching for Ronan’s reaction.

“You fucker,” he laughed.

Declan smiled wryly. “It seemed appropriate.”

“These,” Ronan said, holding up the corvid cards, “are very cool.”

Declan shrugged. “I thought you might like them,” he said, but he looked pleased.

All in all everyone seemed happy, or at least amused by their gifts. Jordan’s Secret Santa was Matthew, and he’d given her a set of mugs, one which said _Paint Water_ on the side, the other _Not Paint Water._

“Oh, awesome, thanks!” Jordan said, high-fiving Matthew. “This will genuinely change my life.”

From Jordan, Declan had received a day planner for the next year, the front of which was covered in a print of various fancy shoes, that were also dotted in the corner of each page inside. Judging from the fondly exasperated look Declan gave Jordan, Ronan was sensing an inside joke he was not privy to. The _best_ part of the gift was the comically large pencil Declan had also been given.

He held it up and sighed. “What the _hell_ am I supposed to do with this?”

“You can take it to your meetings in case you need to write anything down,” Jordan said, smiling sweetly. Matthew was in absolute stitches; he kept looking at the pencil and bursting out into laughter again. “It’s always important to be prepared, Declan. And you’ll never misplace that.”

At Declan’s silence, Jordan only smiled wider. “It’s practical. I was only thinking of you.”

“This is the _least_ practical thing I have ever seen in my entire life,” Declan said, then leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

From Hennessy, Adam had been given a little book of nature origami complete with instructions and paper, and also a stress ball with the Harvard logo on the side.

“I didn’t even know they made these,” Adam said, tossing the stress ball up and down.

“An Ivy League school, are you kidding me” Hennessy scoffed. “Of _course_ they’re got their own branded stress balls. All you geniuses are hanging on by a thread.”

Adam smiled. “I mean...you’re not _wrong.”_

Despite what Adam had said to Ronan on the phone, Hennessy’s gifts were clearly not last minute gas station panic buys. She ripped open the wrapping paper to find a book about some untold art heists throughout history, and a micro sized ten pin bowling tabletop game.

“Ooooh, instructional,” she said, flipping pages through the book. “I bet there’s some good tips in here.”

“I was thinking it would just sort of be interesting rather than a how-to guide, but sure,” Adam shrugged. “Go nuts.”

Hennessy looked at him. “This is from you?” She laughed. “No way. Did you panic as much as I did? I even asked Ronan to swap with me.”

“So did I,” Adam replied dryly, and he smiled at Ronan. “Turned me down flat.”

“What, I’d already bought Matthew his whoopee cushion.”

“You bought Matthew a _what?”_ Declan exclaimed. “Nice, Ronan, you’re not the one who lives with him all the time, I’m never going to get any peace.”

“Hey,” said Matthew, affronted. “I’m mature now. I’ll only get you with the whoopee cushion when it’s like, excessively funny.”

“Which is always,” Jordan said.

“Well, yeah, obviously.”

With dinner over and Secret Santa successfully concluded, everyone retreated once again into the living room. Ronan put on some Christmas music, and Matthew immediately started quizzing everyone with his new movie trivia cards.

Adam was paying less attention to all of this; it was harder for him to hear with background music _and_ everyone all talking over each other at once, so he was instead focussing wholly on his new origami book. He had a piece of paper out and seemed to be trying to make an origami crocodile. Ronan liked the excuse to watch Adam’s hands.

It didn’t take long for Adam to sense the attention and he looked up, eyes narrowed. “What?”

Ronan kissed his forehead. “Nothing. You carry on.”

“I will. Gonna have a whole origami safari park by New Year’s.”

When they’d exhausted the trivia questions, Matthew, Hennessy, and Ronan sat down to play Snap with Ronan’s new corvid cards, while Declan and Jordan made a batch of hot chocolate in the kitchen.

When they returned with six steaming mugs, Matthew put _Home Alone_ on and everyone got comfy to watch.

Ronan and Adam were huddled together under a blanket on the big armchair, and Ronan fell asleep with his head on Adam’s shoulder somewhere near the end of _Home Alone._ He woke up again as Kevin was laying traps in a New York townhouse in _Home Alone 2._ Adam had since added a crane, a giraffe, and several flowers to his origami kingdom, but he stopped folding paper when he noticed Ronan was awake.

“Hey,” he whispered, setting aside his origami. “You wanna go to bed after the movie?”

“I wanna go to bed _now.”_

Adam huffed a laugh. “Okay. C’mon then sleeping beauty.” He took Ronan’s hand and they stood up, quietly saying their goodnights to everyone else, all of whom looked about ready to fall asleep themselves. It was amazing how much lazing around doing little to nothing really took it out of you.

It was cold in Ronan’s room, so he and Adam hugged each other close under the covers, kissing slowly and drowsily in the dark.

“Are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Ronan asked.

“Of course,” Adam murmured, eyes closed. “I’ll be with you.”

* * *

Christmas Day started earlier than Ronan would have liked, with Matthew yelling, “IT’S CHRISTMAASSSS!” at just the wrong side of eight in the morning.

Still, Adam and Ronan dragged themselves out of bed and into their festive sweaters, and headed downstairs.

“I need coffee,” Adam said at the threshold of the living room.

“On it,” Ronan said, and went into the kitchen to put a pot on. Everyone was going through their stockings when he went back into the living room, but they all paused to wish Ronan a Merry Christmas when he entered, and Matthew passed him his own stocking.

His stocking was fit to bursting with Christmas themed confectionary, so Matthew had presumably been in charge of filling it. Ronan had filled everyone else’s, just with sweets and treats and that kind of thing, but he’d forgotten that he’d added something extra to Declan’s.

“Ronan did you put _weed_ in my stocking?”

“It’s not weed, it’s _tea.”_ Ronan paused. “Why, do you _want_ some weed?”

“...That’s not the point here, Ronan, this stuff _stinks.”_

“It has health benefits. All natural. For your stomach; you can throw away those antacids now.”

“Oh ha ha, very funny.”

“Did you get that from Maura?” Adam asked.

Ronan nodded. “Oh yeah, the witches want you to pay them a visit by the way.”

“I’ll do that,” Adam said, smiling at being thought of. “And don’t _call_ them that.”

They spent the next hour or so opening the other presents that were under the tree, as well as eating an unholy amount of chocolate. At some point mid-morning, Declan decided they really should make a start on the cooking.

“Where’s the turkey, Ronan?”

“Yeah, Ronan,” Adam said with a grin. “Where _is_ the turkey?”

Ronan glared at him before answering his brother. “I left it to defrost in the sink in the utility.”

“Alright, I’ll go and prep it.” Declan looked at his watch. “I should have started last night. Never mind, we’ll just eat a little later.”

He got up and left the room, and a minute later he shouted, “Ronan!”

“Uh oh,” Ronan said, getting to his feet. He found Declan in the utility, standing in front of the turkey in the sink, arms crossed.

Declan pointed at the turkey. “Tell me that’s not still frozen.”

Ronan poked at it. It was no longer quite the popsicle it had been the morning before, but was most definitely still too solid to put in the oven, unless he wanted to give everyone food poisoning for Christmas. “Yep. That’s still frozen alright.”

Declan sighed the sigh of the very long suffering, pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes shut. “I cannot _believe_ this. No, scratch that, I absolutely can.”

“Can’t we just chuck it in the microwave?”

“No, we cannot just _chuck it in the fucking microwave.”_

“Alright, keep your hair on. We can run some warm water over it?”

“Turkey’s are supposed to be defrosted slowly, there’s no way we can have that today. Just — when did you even get it out of the freezer?”

Ronan looked at the floor; admittedly he’d dropped the ball on that one. “Yesterday.”

_“Yesterday?!”_

“Yesterday _morning,”_ Ronan felt the need to clarify. “Early. I thought it would still have time.”

Declan threw up his hands. “You’re supposed to be hosting, Ronan. What was your plan for the whole meal? _Nothing’s_ done yet.”

“I was just going to wing it to be honest,” he said with a shrug. It was the truth, and it was also the answer that would piss Declan off the most. “How hard can it be?”

“What’s the problem, boys?” Hennessy asked, startling the pair of them as she snuck up behind them.

“No dinner,” Declan said bitterly, waving a hand at the sink. “Frozen turkey.”

Hennessy mulled this over a moment and then shrugged. “You have leftover lasagna from yesterday, not to mention enough snacks and treats to feed a small army. I’m pretty sure we’ll make it through the day without starving.”

There was a silence, and then Ronan leaned his arm on Declan’s shoulder. “You know, she’s got a point—”

“Shut up, Ronan.”

“We can do the turkey tomorrow instead, or the day after, depending on when it’s completely thawed out. We’ll all pitch in and it’ll be fun, or something,” Hennessy said.

“Or something,” Declan echoed weakly.

“Plus it takes all the pressure off today, don’t you think?” Ronan nudged Declan in the ribs. “Come onnn, don’t be mad. It’s fucking Christmas.”

Declan took a deep breath, in and out. “I’m not mad.”

“...Do you want me to make you some of that tea?” Ronan asked with a smirk.

This finally made Declan smile just a little. “You’re such a little bastard,” he said. “Yeah, go on then. Let’s see if it does what it says on the tin.”

Crisis averted thanks to the fact that Hennessy had a brain, the day resumed in good spirits once again. It started to snow in the afternoon, so they all trooped outside to walk around the fields a bit and get some fresh air.

Adam didn’t have a hat so Ronan gave him one of his, tugging it down so Adam’s ears were covered and safe from the cold. “There you go,” he said, and kissed the tip of Adam’s nose. “All bundled up.”

Matthew tried to incite a snowball fight, but there really wasn’t enough snow on the ground yet to make anywhere near a satisfactory snowball, and soon they all got too cold outside and headed back to the house.

Declan built the fire in the living room back up while Ronan heated up leftover lasagna, and once everyone was fed and warm, they got out a pile of board games to play.

They played Monopoly for a bit, but Ronan ended up in jail and couldn’t roll a double to get out, and also he was pretty sure that Hennessy, in her capacity as Banker, was giving Matthew cash handouts under the table. It started to drag on and get a bit boring so they abandoned that and played Articulate, which was much quicker because they could play in pairs.

When it was completely dark outside, Hennessy and Jordan made more mulled wine, and Ronan put out loads of crisps and other savoury snacks for people to pick at.

Warm and comfortable, Ronan leaned back on the sofa, his arm around Adam. He peered out the window. “I think it’s still snowing. Might get your snowball fight tomorrow, Matthew.”

“I hope so,” Matthew sighed. “It’ll be nice to have proper snow before we have to go back.”

“When do you leave?” Ronan addressed this to Declan.

“The 29th,” he said. “I have work.”

“And _we_ have stuff to do, people to see,” Hennessy said airily, indicating herself and Jordan.

They were going to miss New Year’s Eve, but Ronan had been expecting that. “If Matthew wants to stay, I can drive him up after New Year’s?”

“Thanks, Ronan, but I have plans,” Matthew said, looking so sheepish that Ronan burst out laughing.

“That’s okay, I’ll live. Parrish will be here.” He gave Adam a quick squeeze. “Unless you’ve got a better offer?”

Adam smiled. “None better, no. So I’ll stick around, if you’ll have me.”

“Always,” Ronan said, kissing Adam’s temple.

“We should say our resolutions for the new year now then, while we’re all together,” Jordan said. “I’ll go first: I want to paint at least five new originals.” She patted Declan’s leg. “You go.”

“Okay...I...I’m going to try and drink more water and go to the gym more.”

Ronan snorted. “Of _course_ you do. The resolutions of everyone who’s going to do neither of those things since the dawn of time.”

“Well what’s yours then, smartass?”

Ronan paused. “I dunno. Someone else go, come back to me. Matthew?”

“I,” Matthew said dramatically, “am going to take my driver’s test again.”

“Oh, good one,” said Hennessy.

“You’ll pass next time I bet,” Jordan said with an encouraging thumbs-up.

“I mean let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I said I’d take it again, not that I’d _pass.”_

“I’m going to drink less,” Hennessy said, then looked at the glass of wine she still held. “Starting in the new year, of course; this doesn’t count.”

“Oh, Heloise,” Jordan said fondly.

“I’m going to take a class that’s just for fun. Not for a credit I need. Just something I think sounds interesting,” Adam said. He looked at Ronan and smiled. “Something just for me.”

“Well, cheers to that,” Ronan said, and held up his glass. He looked around at his people, who had all come to stay for Christmas, and had filled the place with noise and laughter and conversation, and who were now all raising their own glasses. Maybe it was the wine, but he felt warm, right down to his bones. “Merry Christmas, guys. I’m glad you’re all here.”

* * *

Late that night, his arm slung over Adam’s hip, Ronan was moments away from drifting off completely.

“You never said yours,” Adam murmured.

“Hmm?”

“Your New Year’s resolution. We never went back to you.”

“Oh. Guess not.”

“...Do you have any?”

Ronan didn’t really make resolutions. There never seemed much point. He could make wishes though. He shifted a little closer, pressing his face into the back of Adam’s neck. “This,” he said. “I want to be able to do more of this.”

Adam didn’t answer. He reached for Ronan’s hand and pulled it up to his chest, pressing it against his heart. And that’s how they slept, like two otters who didn’t want to drift away from each other in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays <3


End file.
